There will always be an uncertain countdown.
In essence, given some function that takes in:
- a graph of stars/blackholes (energy sources), with:
- the distances between each energy source
- the expected remaining lifetime of the source
- (optionally) the probable locations of new sources, and their expected time to maturity
and:
- a set of starships, with:
- the maximum material lifetime of the starship (e.g. of solar panels)
- the percentage of material renewal possible at each node
- the energy consumption of the starship
is there a finite longest path, that is meaningfully smaller than the universe?
And what is the probability that we will encounter a life-bearing planet on this path, which we will have to mine to oblivion to enable the renewal of our starship(s) for the survival of our own species?
But, on a flip side - somewhat tangentially, I've recently become interested in molecular biology. The strides we're making within the field is incredible.
Perhaps it isn't as sexy as astronomy, but it's far more within our grasp, and arguably has a far bigger impact on us, at least right now